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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26227633">Star Maps</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/sharkinterviewee/pseuds/sharkinterviewee'>sharkinterviewee</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>AOS AU August, Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, Banter, Character Study, F/M, Holding Hands, Late Night Conversations, Teasing, Touchy-Feely, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, soft talks, the intimacy of being known</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 10:48:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,105</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26227633</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/sharkinterviewee/pseuds/sharkinterviewee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>She has star maps on the back of her hands. He wants to ask if they were given to her, or if they’d always been there.</p>
<p>He doesn’t.</p>
<p>He has a feeling that if she ever wants him to know, she’ll tell him.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Skye | Daisy Johnson/Daniel Sousa</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>60</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>AOS AU August 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Star Maps</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Day 31 for AOS AU August is free day, so guess what? Magical realism AU for my new otp.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She has star maps on the back of her hands. He wants to ask if they were given to her, or if they’d always been there.</p>
<p>He doesn’t.</p>
<p>He has a feeling that if she ever wants him to know, she’ll tell him.</p>
<hr/>
<p>It's the middle of the night. They sit cross legged on her bunk, heads dipped down and facing each other, all close and intimate like they're sharing some sort of secret.</p>
<p>Daisy never had sleepovers as a child, but she imagines this is what it must have felt like. There's something special about staying up long past everyone else has gone to sleep, speaking softly like they might be overheard. There's a warmth to it too, something that makes her heart beat strong and steady.</p>
<p>A lamp flipped on in a dark bunk on a time ship is close enough to huddling with a flashlight under the covers, right?</p>
<p>Daisy thinks it's close enough. And even if it's not, she doesn't really care. This is nice.</p>
<p>He offers his open hand, and Daisy lays her palm flat against his. His hand is warm, but even more than that, his touch is <em> reverent </em>as he traces the stars and all that connects them on the back of her hand with careful fingers.</p>
<p>He looks up, gauging her reaction, but she doesn't mind.</p>
<p>The backdrop of blues, purples, and reds all smooth together into a dark base that's never quite still, more reds and pinks here slowly moving as violet encroaches there.</p>
<p>It's the shimmering lines that stand out the most. Daniel continues with the careful mapping of the glinting threads connecting stars he's never seen to constellations he's never known.</p>
<p>They shift ever so slightly when he tilts her hand this way or that, like a compass righting itself.</p>
<p>"Have you ever followed them?" He asks, his slow dragging touch making her want to shiver (she manages to rein herself in, doesn't want him to stop).</p>
<p>Daisy shakes her head, murmurs, "Don't wanna get lost."</p>
<p>Daniel tilts her hand again, just the slightest bit, sending scattered light dancing to catch its balance. He follows them, so gentle and warm it makes something inside her ache, and she thinks something inside her breaks.</p>
<p>In a good way. In a very good way.</p>
<p>"Afraid to get lost?" His eyes meet hers, soft and open. "Or afraid you won't be able to find your way back?"</p>
<p>"Is there a difference?" Daisy asks a bit ruefully.</p>
<p>Daniel smiles, "there can be."</p>
<p>She considers his answer. He doesn't offer anything more unsolicited, and Daisy gets the feeling that this is something important, a weighted feeling in her chest, like there's no going back from what happens next.</p>
<p>She makes a decision.</p>
<p>"Then do so enlighten me," she says in that joking tone that he already recognizes as the one she uses when she's trying to give the impression she's not invested in whatever someone is going to say.</p>
<p>He cants his head down to hide the smile it brings to his lips, doesn't want her to think the fond silly smile is at her expense.</p>
<p>(He's always smiling cause of her)</p>
<p>He moves his attention to the back of her hand once more, rededicating himself to the task of following the map with his fingers as some way to ground himself.</p>
<p>"You strike me as the kind of person who always knows exactly where they are," he tells her honestly. "Being lost isn't a problem for you-" Daniel pauses, because no, that isn't quite it. "Being lost is something you just push forward through, until you consider yourself found. But getting back to where you used to be- that's where the trouble is with you."</p>
<p>Daisy frowns, suddenly getting the urge to pull her hand away, feeling like he had been reading her palm by that analysis. It's a little too close to home, and she feels very known.</p>
<p>"Am I wrong?" Daniel asks playfully, and just like that the tightness in her chest eases. She meets his teasing smile with one of her own, like it's the easiest thing in the world.</p>
<p>And it is. He makes everything so damn easy.</p>
<p>She schools her face back into a disgruntled sort of pout, though. Slipping back into the way their teasing always goes.</p>
<p>"Don't make me answer that," she grumbles at his unfortunately accurate characterization.</p>
<p>Daniel chuckles, and Daisy thinks <em> mission accomplished. </em></p>
<hr/>
<p>“Wait, you aren't gonna tell me to try and follow them? See where they go? Offer to help me try? You aren't going to nudge me to even consider it?”</p>
<p>She's honestly confused when that part of the conversation is missing. That part of the conversation is <em> never </em>missing. When anyone even bothers to ask about the stars and the maps on her hands in the first place.</p>
<p>But once it becomes clear that Daniel is done talking, and doesn't plan on saying anything more, she has to ask. (The comfortable quiet that falls between them in the meantime with the warmth and easy hand holding is something that she wishes could last forever, so of course she's the one who has to break it).</p>
<p>Daniel looks faintly amused by her incredulity.</p>
<p>"They're your hands, Daisy," he says, simple as that. "I don't doubt that you've given it far more serious thought than I ever could. You're the first and only speaker on the subject- why would I question that?" Daniel shrugs, like it was the only natural conclusion to reach.</p>
<p>When no, that is not the conclusion most people reach in her experience. She's kinda stunned.</p>
<p>Something she's come to learn about Daniel Sousa: he never reacts the way she expects him to, but without fail his responses are always good.</p>
<p>And, because she wants to, Daisy takes his hand between both of hers, holding it like it's something precious. She smooths her thumb over his skin with the same care he did to hers, idly tracing invisible designs that make him inhale probably a bit sharper than he meant to.</p>
<p>Daisy brings their hands up to her face, leaning her head forward against them, closing her eyes and just breathes. In, out.</p>
<p>Her fingers find his pulse point, stroking the sensitive skin of his inner wrist.</p>
<p>Daniel swallows. "Besides," he says, his voice only slightly off, giving his best attempt at casual. It makes her smile. "You know where I'll be if you ever decide you want to go chasing stars. Next to you."</p>
<p>Daisy huffs a soft breath of a laugh before kissing his hand, because yes, she does know that.</p>
<p>She knows.</p>
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